Using Games to Rein in Meetings
by Cheryl RosenIf gamification really does promote the use of a managed travel program – and even those who hate the idea agree that indeed it does – then why not use it to help consolidate meetings, too?
That’s the thinking at Massachusetts-based Atlas Travel, which has begun pitching gamification as a way to incentivize corporate planners to roll their meetings and events into the overall managed travel program.
Really it’s just a new twist on a couple of old ideas, said Jennifer Vecchi, Atlas Travel’s director of meetings, incentives, conventions and events.
Planners as free agents
As a travel management company, Atlas has long been helping its customers consolidate transient travel, and offering to consolidate meetings as well. But many companies – even those with consolidated transient travel programs – still allow meeting planners to choose their own sites.
This year in particular, Atlas Travel is “seeing a lot of activity in meetings, and group air is very busy,” Vecchi told Travel Market Report.
Part of Atlas’s job as a TMC is to track compliance with travel policy and suggest ways to encourage travelers to use preferred suppliers. So why not combine Atlas’ Strategic Meeting Management Program with a gamification and awards programs for corporate meeting planners?
The rationale
When looking at corporate spending data, Atlas is apt to find as many as 20 meeting planners in a single company, Vecchi said. And they’re all making separate deals with hotels and airlines, and even with third party meeting planning companies – with no thought of pushing that volume to the transient travel program.
While some in the travel industry are opposed to using incentive programs to get employees to do what they should do anyway, most meeting planners are not mandated to use preferred suppliers.
And planners already are incentivized with frequent traveler points by the suppliers they work with; planners can win a week’s vacation in Hawaii for bringing a large group to some hotels.
“Everyone has their perks from suppliers,” Vecchi said. “Gamification is like a loyalty program from your company.”
Instills good behavior
Gamification is an especially useful tool when introducing a program, like meetings consolidation, because it instills the desired behavior right from the beginning and makes it part of the corporate culture, Vecchi noted. When the program ends, people already are accustomed to doing the “right thing.”
And a good gamification program does not cost the company anything, because whatever prizes are offered are paid for by the savings reaped by the behavior that is being promoted.
In the end, Vecchi noted, even the best corporate citizen wants a little recognition for going the extra mile for the company.
“It’s all about making people feel rewarded,” she said.
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